Please log in

Register now for free

First Name *

Last Name *

Email *

A valid e-mail address. All e-mails from the system will be sent to this address. The e-mail address is not made public and will only be used if you wish to receive a new password or wish to receive certain news or notifications by e-mail.

Welsh tire of time-lag over funds

The Higher Education Funding Council for Wales announced this week that it expected to have £376 million to spend next year - an 8.2 per cent increase on this year.

The extra money was welcomed by funding council officials, but they warned that the slow budget-making process for the assembly was putting Welsh universities under unnecessary pressure.

Phil Gummett, the funding council's head of higher education, said the assembly would not provide details of how much of the overall budget should be top-sliced for particular projects, such as increases in academics' pay, until the new year.

He said this was partly due to the "awkward" system for allocating money to the assembly from Westminster, which puts decisions in Wales one step behind those in England.

"We are somewhat on the back foot in talking to our vice-chancellors, who can see that decisions have already been made in England, and who may have the unions banging on their door demanding to know what they are going to do about pay.

"Some academics may already have been made an offer of employment at an institution in England, and it is not clear how it can be matched in Wales," he said.

Edwina Hart, the assembly's finance minister, said the concerns would be taken into account in the next budget round.

Mr Martin said the funding council would use all its capital research funding for 2002-03 and 2003-04 to make allocations through the new Science Research Initiative Fund, announced by chancellor Gordon Brown in July, to invest more in science buildings, laboratories and equipment.

You've reached your article limit.

Register to continue

Registration is free and only takes a moment. Once registered you can read a total of 3 articles each month, plus: